SPOTIFY WRAPPED: A NEW KIND OF GIFT BY BRANDON BARRETT

On November 29, 2022, something took over the high school: a trend that had been growing for years that has been made incredibly popular by the streaming music app, Spotify. Everyone was talking about their Spotify Wrapped. Spotify Wrapped is a year-end display from the app of what artists, songs, and albums the listener has been enjoying. It comes with fun graphics, messages from artists, and a playlist of the top 100 songs listened to all year by that particular user. Many students use their Spotify Wrapped, and look forward to it weeks before.

It - and other services like it, such as Apple Music Replay - shows the listener their most played songs and artists. In some cases, especially on Spoti- fy, the top songs are organized into a play- list that can be down- loaded. The listener can thus see what their music taste really was during the past year - and how much or little it has shifted.

Senior Elaine Steel recounted how she “listened to a lot of musicals.” Scott Sopata, a junior, explained how a lot of the people he knew argued over whether rap or 80s music was superior. He said the trend was being talked about everywhere, “In my group chats I’ve seen people talking about it.”

Spotify Wrapped is - and will continue to be - a very popular trend in North Royalton High School. From musical lovers to enjoyers of hip-hop, students of every musical taste came together to share their music tastes and laugh at some of the more questionable aspects of their choices from earlier on in the year.